It was a breezy Thursday evening, well past dinner, that Madam Pomfrey was forcing Julie to leave the Hospital Wing. Despite her objections she was unable to persuade Madam Pomfrey other wise. Julie had spent the past week in the Hospital Wing. Even through her injuries had healed after only a couple days, she wasn’t quite ready to face anybody else yet. She was able to talk Madam Pomfrey into letting her stay until she felt better, and was able to face people. Having Hermione bring her homework assignments to her everyday was a way for her to stay caught up with her classes, and to know when people had stopped talking about what they assume happened when she entered the forest.

Some how news of Harry spending the night with her in the Hospital Wing got out. The speculations of what happened between them were very far fetched. Julie, at first, was blaming Harry for spreading the rumors but Hermione was assuring her that he was getting questioned about it as well. Julie was grateful that Hermione was willing to visit her everyday and do homework with her as well as keep her company. Harry and Ron would visit but never stayed as long because of Quidditch practice. Upon exiting the Hospital wing Julie was met with the bushy mane of head hair of Hermione running at her, carrying a large book.

“Hey Hermione, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, you’re out! I was hoping to catch you. I’ve been in the library during all my spare time researching your….. Condition. I think I found something.” Handing Julie the book, the binding cracked as she opened it to the saved page and read while making her way to Gryffindor tower. The book smelled like it had been in storage for a long time.

‘The fae were known to be many kinds of creatures through out time. Some are known as Gnomes, Pixies and Leprechauns as well as numerous other beings. The rarest being Elementals. Though there is little documentation of these elusive beings, few scholars believe they actually existed. Believed to now be extinct, many ancient wizards began writing off the small traces of their alleged appearances as myth and folk lore.
There was a story that was once passed down to every generation about how Elementals are created, and how you can know if one has appeared. It was once said that the 16th year of celestial alignment, the powers of an Elemental would mature, bringing destruction to all in it’s path. Thought to be a mistranslation being that the original story was found on an old scroll written in ancient Greek. Empedocles, a great sorcerer from ancient Greece, held many theories about these creatures. He speculated that the Elementals emotions were what powered their abilities. Love and Strife would act as forces to bring about the mixture and separation of the elements. It was believed that Anger and hatred were what powered elementals over all other emotion. Those assumptions lead to the hunting of those believed to be Elementals. Empedocles speculated that if an Elemental was able to control and harness their emotions they could be very powerful and depending on the person bring great peace and balance to the world or destroy the world along with it self.’

“What is all this supposed to mean?”

“Well, it means that you can control it.”

“That’s all well and good, but what’s this about the ‘16th year of celestial alignment’, what is that supposed to mean? I got that it might be an incorrect translation, but I would like to know more about it. I need to make sure I don’t hurt anybody.”

“Well there really weren’t many books on the topic in the library. Between Prefect duties and homework I just haven’t had time to look into things more.”

“You know, you don’t have to worry about it. Its not even your problem to solve.”

“I know, I want to help you. That’s what friends are for.” Giving Julie a broad smile she uttered the password and walked through the portrait hole. Harry and Ron were sitting at a table in the back of the common room with books and parchment piled around them.

Harry was staring blankly at his open Potions book while Ron was trying to balance his quill on the bridge of his nose. Hermione loudly cleared her throat breaking their daze.

“You two should really try to get your homework done sooner. I told you that you could join my study group.” Ron rolled his eyes at Hermione’s words and started flicking bits of paper in Crookshanks direction.

Julie slumped down onto the over sized sofa in front of the fire place. Staring into the flames she thought of all the events that occurred barely a fortnight ago. Things had never been this crazy, she was apparently some kind of mythical being capable of great evil. It was a very daunting feeling that settled oddly in her stomach.

Still holding the book Hermione had given her she opened the book again to the saved place tuning out Hermione and Ron’s bickering she re-read the page, over and over engraving it into her mind. Feeling someone sit next to her, she adverted her eyes to the person to her left. Harry’s sudden presence startled her, causing her to shift her weight slightly away from him.

“How are you holding up?”
“I’ll let you know as soon as I figure that out.” casting him a nervous smile she looked back at the open book in front of her.
“I brought your broom back for you, Hermione put it in your dorm.”
“Thanks, I guess with all that has happened, I forgot about it. You know, you don’t have to be so nice to me. None of you do, what I’m dealing with isn’t your problem to solve. I just need you to keep my secret.”
“You need more than that. Don’t pretend that you’re ok. I’ve been where you are, I know you are struggling with a lot, just know that we are here for you, when you need it.” giving her a weak smile he went back to the table his homework was scattered on. Tracing her fingers across the aged pages of the dusty book in her lap she read further into the book. Finding no helpful information she closed the book and retreated to the girls dormitory. Lavender and Parvatri were already asleep, so Julie quietly gathered some clean pajamas and headed to the bathroom. After taking a long hot shower she crawled into her four poster bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Waking before everybody else Julie quietly dressed grabbed her neglected book bag and exited the dormitory. Expecting to spend some alone time in the common room before heading down for breakfast, but was met with a sleeping Harry. He was sprawled across a large pile of homework, glasses askew and a small puddle of drool had soaked into a sheet of parchment. Smiling slightly Julie walked over and shook him awake. Shooting up Harry nearly fell out of his chair, the sheet of parchment stuck to his face. As his eyes landing on Julie, his ears reddened slightly. Peeling away the sheet of parchment, he rubbed his eyes.

“What time is it?” His voice came out hoarse.
“Just after dawn. Have you been down here all night?”
“Yeah, had an essay to finish. Musta dozed off.”
“Harry, you’ve got ink on your face, looks like part of your essay.” Harry attempted to wipe the ink away only to smear it across his face more. A genuine chuckle to escape her for the first time in weeks.
“Here, let me get it.” Pulling out a handkerchief and conjuring a small bowl of water, she grasped his chin and started wiping away the ink on his face, his skin was warm and she could feel slight stubble under her thumb. Feeling his eyes on her, she abruptly stepped away from him, stuffing the handkerchief in her pocket. “I should go.” As she turned to leave she felt a calloused hand grab her wrist. Turning her attention back to Harry, he was now standing. His rough fingers caressed her delicate hand.

They stood silently looking at each other, as he reached to touch her face the sound of a door slamming from up the stairs jerked their attention away from each other. Letting go of her hand Harry stepped back and Julie took this opportunity to dash from the common room. Throwing her bag over her shoulder she half ran from the common room and headed down to the library. Julie wove her way through the tall book shelves making her way to the back of the library where Madam Prince was levitating books back on to their respective shelves. Sliding into a chair at one of the large tables that were scattered through out the room she pulled out the book Hermione had given to her and started reading.

Julie hid in the Library for the better part of a half hour. Ducking under the table whenever she heard a voice. Mostly being the voices of passing ghosts. Still feeling slightly on edge, it took slightly longer than it normally would have for her to read through the entire book. As she finally finished the last page of the book, she leaned back in her chair. Staring across the room absorbed in her thoughts, and ignoring her stomach’s demand for food. Finally giving in she shouldered her bag and headed to the Great Hall.

Breakfast passed slower than Julie would have liked, this being the first time most people had seen her in a week, she was bombarded with questions, and condolences about her mothers death. Avoiding pressing questions the best she could. She was grateful when Hermione and Ron showed up shooing them away, offering them a half smile as they took a seat across from her.

“You’d think they would have better things to do than to pry into every detail of somebody else’s life. Is everybody at this school that nosey?”
“You have no idea.” Harrys voice loomed above her as he slid into the place next to her. Trying to hide her reddening face she pretending to take a sip from her breakfast goblet and doing her best to avoid Harry’s line of sight. Thankful that the topic switched from her to Quidditch practice while she finished breakfast.

Exiting the Great Hall, Ron and Harry headed back to the Common room for their free period while Julie and Hermione headed towards advanced Ancient Runes, where class passed quickly. The rest of the day fairly uneventful, receiving detention from Snape for interrupting his lecture by snapping at a classmate, who was whispering questions asking her what happened between Harry and herself in the hospital wing. And receiving a pile of homework in each class again. Skipping lunch to spend time in the Library searching for more information about what she was, no matter how obscure it might be, but coming with nothing. Deciding that she’ll have to get a note to search the restricted section, she headed off to Transfiguration where they were paired off and working on transfiguring each other’s hair into different colors. Both Julie and Hermione were the only ones to successfully change each other’s hair color. Julie making Hermione’s a fair shade of blonde, while she made Julie’s hair match the deep purple of her eyes.

Neville had accidentally caused his own eyebrows to go so long and every effort to undo the spell caused them to grow longer and thicker to the point where McGonagall had to take him to the Hospital wing dismissing class early. Exiting the class Julie decided to leave a strip of her hair purple, while Hermione was quick to change her hair back, they also helped Ron and Harry change their hair back to normal, from their patchy shades of white and brown. Climbing the stairs to return their book bags to the dorm before dinner Julie did her best to feign happiness, laughing and smiling with everyone as they walked. Dumping her bag on her bed she pretended to be looking for something in her bed side table telling Hermione that she’d be right behind her and to just head down with out her. The moment she was alone Julie let a shaky breath escape her, as if she had been holding her breath all day. Sliding down into her bed she shoved the heels of her palms into her eyes forcing the tears from falling down her face. She hated crying more than anything, and she hated when people knew she had been crying even more. Taking a few moments to regain her composure she straightened her uniform, and tied her hair into a loose braid and quickly washed her face in the bathroom in attempt to hide that she allowed tears to fall.

Debating on skipping dinner, and just heading by the kitchens to get some food to eat alone while she did homework. After a few minuets of pacing around her dorm room Julie decided that being around another crowd of people peering at her over their plates and goblets talking barely loud enough that she could hear them talking about her wasn’t how she wanted to spend her first dinner after getting out of the hospital, and that going by the kitchens for her plate of food was a better option. Stepping off the bottom step, she glanced up was met with Harry casually sitting on the arm of the sofa as if he had been waiting for her.

“I’d like to talk to you about what happened when I came back to the Hospital wing that night,” pausing he stood and took a step closer, “and this morning.”
Julie was aware of how her fight or flight response was starting to kick in, how her brain was telling her to run away, but every muscle in her body was forcing her to stay put. Harry was close enough to touch her now, though he kept his hands at his side. “You need to know why I came back to stay with you.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me.” She motioned to walk past him but he blocked her path, as if he hadn’t heard her he stepped closer and tucked a fallen strand of hair behind her ear, trailing his calloused thumb down her pale cheek he cupped her face in his hand. His touch sent goose bumps down her body. Lowering his face he rested his forehead against hers. What was merely seconds, felt like hours as he leaned in and firmly pressed his lips against hers.